Stephen A. Smith

Featured Commentator, First Take

Stephen A. Smith, along with Max Kellerman, is a featured commentator on ESPN’s First Take weekdays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET, discussing and debating the sports topics of the day. He joined First Take on a permanent basis in 2012.

In September 2014, Smith began hosting the daily The Stephen A. Smith Show on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio. In January 2017, The Stephen A. Smith Show moved to ESPN’s SiriusXM channel and simulcast on ESPN’s owned and operated stations in New York (98.7FM) and Los Angeles (710AM), airing 1-3 p.m. ET. In January 2018, the program expanded to the national ESPN Radio network and is available across ESPN Radio stations throughout the country.

From 2011 until 2014, Smith hosted a two-hour (1-3 p.m.), weekday local show on ESPN Radio 98.7FM in New York. For one year, starting in 2011, he also hosted a local show on ESPN LA 710AM in Los Angeles, covering both coasts.

Smith made a variety of contributions to ESPN from 2003-08. Smith hosted The Stephen A. Smith Show on ESPN Radio from 2005-08. He was also the host of ESPN2’s Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith, a one-hour show featuring sports news, commentary on sports issues, and interviews, from 2005-07. Smith joined ESPN in 2003 as an analyst for the network’s NBA Shootaround (since renamed NBA Countdown) pregame show. He regularly appeared on ESPN’s SportsCenter, ESPNEWS, ESPN2’s First Take and as guest host of Pardon the Interruption and Jim Rome is Burning.

Smith also hosted a morning show on Fox Sports Radio. Previously, Smith held several positions – most recently as a general sports columnist – during 16 years with the Philadelphia Inquirer (1994-2010). Prior to joining the Inquirer, Smith was a reporter with the Winston-Salem Journal, the Greensboro News and Record and the New York Daily News.

After attending the Fashion Institute of Technology for one year, Smith received a basketball scholarship to attend Winston-Salem State University, a historically black university in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he graduated in 1991.

Smith made his acting debut on the ABC soap opera General Hospital in a cameo appearance as a television reporter on the February 2, 2007, Later the same year, he was in the Chris Rock motion picture I Think I Love My Wife. Smith returned to General Hospital in April 2016 as “Brick,” a surveillance expert for the Mob.

Since 2014, he has appeared in a series of Oberto all-natural beef jerky commercials as “The Little Voice in Your Stomach,” each time appearing alongside sports figures, such as Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, pro snowboarder Louie Vito and ESPN’s Dick Vitale.

ESPN’s First Take viewership was up 16% for Wednesday, Jan. 31, through Friday, Feb. 2, while Stephen A. Smith was live from Minnesota for Super Bowl LII, compared to Wednesday – Friday before the Super Bowl last year (461,000 vs. 398,000, P2+, according to Nielsen). The all-star guest lineup for the three shows included Kevin Hart, Snoop Dogg, Todd Gurley, Marcus Mariota, Travis Kelce, Dan Marino, Emmitt Smith, Von Miller, Kareem Hunt and more debating the Super Bowl, LeBron James and other NFL and NBA topics.

In January, ESPN’s First Take enjoyed a 7% increase in overall viewership over the previous year, averaging 503,000 viewers (P2+, Nielsen’s January 2018: January 1-28, Nielsen’s January 2017: December 26, 2016 – January 29). The month also saw an increase of 13% for women (F2+) compared to the same month last year (103,000 vs. 91,000) and an increase of 6% for men (M2+, 399,000 vs 377,000). This increase comes after First Take capped off 2017 with its most-viewed year ever.

On Monday, Jan. 29 ahead of Super Bowl LII, ESPN will debut its first episodic digital show that will be streamed three times per week exclusively on Facebook Watch. First Take: Your Take will tailor ESPN’s popular First Take television program to Facebook’s new social video platform with content that incorporates viewer interaction and engagement.

On Tuesday, Jan. 2, ESPN’s First Take equaled its highest-rated show ever with a 0.6 household rating, tied for its best ever with November 4 and January 16 of 2017 and January 10, 2016. On the same Tuesday a year ago, First Take moved to ESPN from ESPN2 and rated a strong 0.5. The day also ranks third in audience with an average of 823,000 viewers (P2+), behind December 30, 2013 (880,000), and January 16, 2017 (851,000).

ESPN’s First Take recorded its most-viewed year ever (show launched in 2005 as Cold Pizza through 2007) with 449,000 viewers (P2+). Overall, the audience was 25% larger than last year (449,000 vs. 359,000). Among men 18-34, First Take was up 29% (106,000 vs. 82,000).

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